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Friday, 28 October 2016

Seven Days of Samhain...Day 4 - Crafts

On the fourth day of Samhain my Coven gave to me...crafts

Pumpkin Candle holders

If you can get hold of some small pumpkins they make excellent tea light holders, you could also use large apples for this as well. Hollow out a space in the top of the pumpkin so that a tea light just sits nicely inside and that’s it! Pumpkin candle holder made.

Waxed Leaves

Pick up a nice selection of autumn leaves, then you will need to melt some candle wax, for this you can use up all the old candle stubs you have collected. When the wax is melted, carefully and I mean carefully because hot candle wax is horrible on your skin (speaking from personal experience) dip each leaf into the wax, coating both sides then lay the leaves on greased proof paper to dry, once they are set you can use them for all sorts of decoration ideas.

Halloween Tree

Using a tall vase, fill it with a mixture of rice and wild rice then stick twigs into it to make a ‘tree’ you can then hang Halloween decorations and candy from the twigs.

Tin lanterns:

Materials required:

Treacle tin or similar (clean and empty)
Picture hanging wire
Bradawl

Empty and clean the tin. Clean the tin inside and out with hot water and then make sure its dry. Use the bradawl to carefully push holes through the tin to make a pattern. If you are going for a particular design then you might want to mark it out with marker pen first - take care not to slip and hurt yourself as the metal on the tin is slippery.

Punch two holes at the top of the tin on opposite sides ready for the hanging wire. Loop the wire through and twist each end close to the tin to form the handle. Turn the lid upside down and push through into the tin to provide and extra base. Add a tealight.

NOTE: the tin will get HOT!

Day of the Dead Skulls

El Dia de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead – and the tossing of Mexican culture into the melting pot of America. This celebration begins on the eve of October 31. Often called Los Dias de los Muertos because more than one day is involved, depending on the local celebration. My most favourite symbol from the Day of the Dead are the skulls, using the basic skull shape they are decorated in wild and beautiful colours and made from sugar, chocolate, bread and candy. You can buy Day of the Dead skull moulds in a lot of the craft shops and they come with instructions but I like to make a simpler version using felt.

I draw out a basic skull shape and use it as a template to cut two pieces of felt, I then decorate one piece with buttons, embroidery stitches, sequins and jewels in a Day of the Dead pattern I then sew the other piece of felt to the back and stuff it with dried beans and herbs as I do when I make a poppet.

Samhain Wreath

Using a basic wreath shape available in craft stores – foam or wicker you can add all sorts of Halloween items to it – autumn leaves, dried apple slices, tiny plastic bats and spiders, make little tiny tombstones from cardboard, use lots of yellow and black ribbon and tiny pumpkins. You could even cover the wreath shape with dried pumpkin seeds or Halloween candy.

Pumpkins

Now I am not going to tell you how to carve pumpkins because I am sure you all know how to do that! But how about painting onto pumpkins instead of carving them? There are lots of Halloween themed stencils on the internet, print one off and use spray paint or dab acrylic paint with a sponge over the stencil to create the images on your pumpkin – good results and now squishy pumpkin mess. You don’t have to just use pumpkins try squashes, gourds or turnips. Go smaller still and paint acorns or hazelnuts to look like tiny pumpkins!